Natasha finishes her first season with top level football in the Netherlands and what a fantastic season it was as she overcame sooooo many challenges to have an incredible influence of the teams game results. Some of the challenges included exiting a 3 month house arrest lockdown in Spain to move to the Netherlands and a first week of training that included a mountain of old school running as well as a change of country, culture,  climate, football styles, training styles, professional level training and so much more….. but there were two changes that required much more adaptation then she ever considered. One change was that the Dutch female players are much taller and much more solid structure than the Spanish players and therefore that makes training and games much more physical and the other is that the artificial grass pitches in the Netherlands are much softer than the hard Spanish pitches. This was very difficult and took Natasha many months to adapt especially after coming out of a 3 month lockdown.

While VV Alkmaar had a difficult season, Natasha’s goal for the season was to adapt to top level football and to influence game results and she did that extremely well. In fact VV Alkmaar only won league or cup games when Natasha played. That is an entire season where the first team only won when Natasha played. That is amazing ? !!! While Natasha would have liked to play more games and did play in some losses the fact remains that the team only won their league and cup games when she played. See the above video for a more detailed analysis. An incredible season for Natasha and she will look to build further on influencing game results next season and now VV Alkmaar will always hold a special place in her heart.

Natasha scores her first goal in the Eredivisie League in only her second game as striker to help VV Alkmaar to their second win of the league over 5th place Heerenveen. Natasha constantly troubled the defence in scoring a goal taking several shots, keypasses and attacks as VV Alkmaar were cruising to a win before two late goals by Heerenveen meant that Alkmaar had to score a late goal to win 4-3. 

Image by: Mike Schoonenberg Photograhy – https://mikeschoonenberg.com/

This was a difficult game for VV Alkmaar as they came up against the form team of the competition FC Twente who gave them an absolute masterclass in top level football. Natasha entered the game with alkmaar totally under the pump and the game already out of reach and while she had limited opportunities with the ball she added some energy and she still produced several positive plays.

VV Alkmaar went from their first win of the league last week to a very disappointing 1-4 defeat at the hands of ADO Den Haag in a performance they will want to improve very quickly as their next game is against FC Twente who are absolutely on fire. They have one week to fix many issues.
After a very good 89minutes last week Natasha played 10minutes at the end of this game, entering when the score was 0-4. While she didn’t get many opportunities with the ball she still completed her passes at 100% forced some turnovers won a foul and did a nice short dribble with a penetrating forward pass.

Natasha’s league debut resulted the first league win of the season for VV Alkmaar and a strong performance by Natasha as she constantly troubled the Excelsior defence with her penetrating dribbles and precise passing game. She provided numerous key passes and had several shots at goals as she played a key role in helping VV Alkmaar secure a very convincing win.

VV Alkmaar produced a solid but hard fought win over Excelsior to claim their first win of the season (4-3).

Natasha played approximately 30 minutes on the wing where she played a little in her junior football but hasn’t played for many years now. She created a number of attacks and looked dangerous with the ball but it was great to see her open the burners and unleash that speed that she has spent years developing. Many people commented on just how fast she is and with more game time she will continue to terrorize defences with her speed and ball skills.

More snow then the locals have seen in decades has prevented this weeks game but another new and breathtaking experience for Natasha especially with the skating on the canals also happening thanks to the extremely cold conditions. The skating on the canals has not happened for 9 years so while the football has been delayed due to the extreme  conditions it is a magnificent experience in its place for the weekend.

Below is the highlights reel for Natasha’s first half of the season with VV Alkmaar. It has been a difficult season so far due to corona restrictions causing an interrupted and reduced game schedule and difficulties with video etc therefore these highlights come from only 6 games, however Natasha has made the most of it and made some quality plays and highlights including one of the best goals you will ever see. Enjoy!

Natasha played a friendly game, well friendly by name, against the Eredivisie Vrouwen leaders AFC Ajax. Ajax is loaded with international and top class players so it was a great opportunity for Natasha to experience playing against some of the best players in Holland. Natasha had a great game and really enjoyed the experience.

Alkmaar were very competitive and only just lost in what was a very good effort by the entire team.